monday night flashback #31: special wednesday edition

my brother was the impetus for grant and me getting together (thanks again for that, jared). see here. it took some time. 

while i was in high school, grant and i had our first first date. we tripled with jared and grant's sister jewel, and grant's parents. it was actually super fun. we went up to salt lake city for dinner (and maybe a movie?) anyway, grant and i talked a lot and hit it off. i'd always thought he was cool. i mean, duh:

cool. and unaware of said coolness, thus magnifying it. plus, he's not hard on the eyes. back to the date: it was great. i had hopes. and . . . nothing. in grant's defense, i was still in high school and i didn't call him either. but the attraction was there!

fast forward to late spring/early summer 2002, jared mentioned to me that he'd told grant to ask me out. i waited excited and breathless for a week or two and . . . again nothing. life moved on. i did silly things with my friends:

grant did manly, tough things with jared:

now and then i joined them on their excursions, usually as the camera wielder. eventually, i was allowed to hang out as one of the gang. we played video games (like halo) and ate ice cream. on one such night, sometime in the fall (maybe winter) of 2002, we decided to get root beer floats at the kfc/a&w in provo or orem. grant (secretly crushing on me) treated us all. as we waited, i daringly grabbed a straw and shot the wrapper at him. wouldn't you know it? i got him right between the eyes. he must have liked it because he finally called to ask me out a few weeks later . . . 

happy (33rd) birthday dearest muffin!! xxx

birthdays & parties

july 1, lucy turned 4. she'd been looking forward to it for ages and i don't think she was displeased:

as she slept, i covered her in pink balloons and waited for her bubbly excitement to overflow:

she didn't disappoint:

the 1st was a sunday and grant had early morning meetings to attend, making him unable to be around for presents. i let lucy open one (a new dress) before church:

and kept the rest back for after, when grant could watch: 

lucy was super excited to receive her very own scooter:

hazel gave her spiderman action figures:

it was hazel's lucky day too:

she received her own present from aunt jewel, along with lucy's. (thanks, jewel! they love them)

oliver thouroughly enjoyed the carnage:

lucy, after she finished opening everything, wanted to test drive her scooter:

don't let the picture deceive you, she really did have fun. as ever, grant and i are safety conscious. lucy was delighted with her spider-man helmet, knee and elbow pads, and finger-less gloves. in fact, she loved the gloves so much, she rarely took them off the first week:

lucy wanted pizza for dinner and i obliged. she also wanted a pink spider-man cake, but i talked her into cookies-n-cream cupcakes with pink frosting and she was happy to switch:

ok. maybe she was mostly excited to have a #4 candle on her cupcake, but they were also super delicious. i even fancied them up by swirling three colors of icing (pink, light pink, and white) using this tutorial. it turned out fine, but i think my frosting wasn't thick enough:

and finally, no birthday is complete without ice cream:

we took it pretty easy for the 4th of july. the library was closed so grant had to stay home with us. we went back to the spider web park:

it was hot:

really, really hot:

but that didn't stop us from getting a nice run in:

the girls rode their contraptions back and forth along the pathway:

lucy was nice enough to share:

we had lots of fun:

but eventually the threat of heat strokes sent us home.

last weekend, grant went to las vegas to visit his sister, so the girls and i had ourselves a party weekend. we went to the movie brave. lucy thought it was too loud:

but otherwise, we all enjoyed it tremendously.

we posed a bit outside the theater:

before heading home to paint:

sunday after church, we picked grant up from the airport and all was well.

almost a week with grandma

brace yourselves, folks. this is going to be long . . .

grandma came to visit us on feb. 22. we had some belated birthday cupcakes ready for her (hazel gets credit for that. she wanted to eat cupcakes surprise grandma):

they were vanilla with chocolate buttercream. tasty.

wednesday morning, grant took the girls and grandma to a park (i stayed at home so i could attempt to finish my book club book for the meeting that night [it's an excellent book. i highly recommend it]):

a monkey on the monkey bars

a monkey with hair!

hazel takes the reins

self-portrait #2

self-portrait #3

a monkey plays in dirt

 saturday, we decided to dazzle grandma with the alligator park:

first, was lunch:

then it was on to the main attraction:  

unfortunately, due to the rainy, chilly weather and a noisy water pump, the 'gators were scarce. after our first sighting, the only animals we saw were birds: 

hazel spent her time complaining about how she was "soooo tired and just couldn't walk any more":

lucy spent her time breaking the law by picking every wild flower she saw:

in hopes of spotting another reptile, we struck out onto a new path:

and we did see this guy:

but i'm pretty sure it was the one from before.

by this time we were wet and cold so we headed indoors to pet a baby 'gator:

a king corn snake:

hazel wowed the ranger by knowing that a snake's tongue smells

and a tarantula:

*shudder* yes, it was real. and alive. at least she didn't want to keep it as a pet. ewww.

on monday we headed to the zoo. first to ride the train:

and then to visit the animals:

the meerkats. (grandma treated us to lollipops)

grant's favorite bald eagle. (no, grant. you will never live that down. mwahahaha!)

 we were impressed with this ankole's ability to use it's horns to pull branches down to scratch it's back.

a maned wolf

eventually we made it around to the african forest (the only part of the zoo grandma hadn't seen):

drums:

chimps:

and a couple of ostriches with the giraffes:

who weren't getting along:

somebody wasn't happy that day...

the lions were much more affectionate:

and finally, a flock of flamingoes:

 that night grandma unveiled a delightful surprise:

snow! or fake snow, rather. start with powder:

add water and presto chango!

diaper guts! i mean: snow!

the girls had a ball playing in it and it was amazingly containable, thus easy to clean up.

tuesday morning, grandma watched hazel and lucy while grant and i hit up the temple:

awww!

 and once we got home it was time to take grandma to the airport.

we were all sad to see her leave (even oliver, who only took 4 days to [kind of] warm up to her). thanks for coming to visit us, gail! we loved having you here and only wish that you could have stayed longer.